Apple

News stories featuring Apple:

Visa will support the launch of Apple Pay in Hong Kong, the payment network has confirmed, after announcing its support for the expansion of the mobile payment service to Switzerland and France. “One in ten Visa transactions in Hong Kong is a Visa PayWave transaction and we expect the number of contactless payments to grow even further,” says Caroline Ada, country manager of Visa Hong Kong and Macau.

Apple Pay is expanding to Switzerland, France and Hong Kong in the “next few months” and will be made available for online payments via an Apple Pay button that uses Touch ID for authentication, the company has announced during a keynote at its Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). More

Apple Pay has “made only a small dent in the global payments market” due to technical challenges, low consumer take-up and resistance from banks, according to a report by Reuters. “Apple Pay usage totaled US$10.9bn last year, the vast majority of that in the US,” the publication says, citing research from Timetric. “That is less than the annual volume of transactions in Kenya, a mobile payments pioneer.”

The Samsung Pay Mini online payments app expected to go live in South Korea this month will be compatible with Apple devices as well as Android smartphones, according to ETNews. “Samsung Electronics is planning to provide this application for free and has designed it so that it can be used on all smartphones such as iPhones and LG Electronics’ phones,” the publication reports. News that Samsung is preparing to roll out the Samsung Pay Mini app emerged last week.

Apple is “working rapidly” to expand Apple Pay across more countries in Asia and Europe, Jennifer Bailey, VP of the mobile payment service, has told TechCrunch. “Our goal is to have Apple Pay in every significant market Apple is in,” Bailey said. “We have announced Hong Kong, [and] across the [Asia Pacific] region, we’re talking to many partners and banks and evaluating how quickly we can bring Apple Pay to new markets.”

Apple has been granted a patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office for a service that would store vehicle keys on an iPhone. “Apple’s granted patent generally relates to wireless communication between computing devices and, more particularly, to using portable computing devices to access a vehicle,” Patently Apple reports. The service would let users open their car doors, start the engine and shut it off for specific time periods and program personalised vehicle settings.

Apple Pay will experience greater success than Android Pay and will “grow exceptionally based on a belief that Apple Pay using a Secure Enclave/secure element inside of iOS has an advantage over Android Pay’s host card emulation (HCE) in that it’s more secure, with a similar user experience,” according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. “We believe that Apple Pay will offer the most seamless payment experience on iOS regardless of whether its in-app, in-browser or in-store,” Barron’s reports Munster as saying.

Consumers in Singapore can now add their MasterCard and Visa cards to Apple Pay, after the mobile payment service launched there in April 2016 with support from American Express alone. Five of the country’s major… More

Drivers in the UK may soon be able to store their driver’s license in Apple’s Passbook wallet, according to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). “There’s no telling when, or indeed if, the idea will make it to release,” SlashGear reports. “Right now, this is a prototype with no timescale for an actual release and were that to pan out, it would be offered in addition to, not replacing, the regular photo card.”

Canadian banks that announced their support for Apple Pay earlier this week have received “slightly more favourable terms than US financial services firms,” according to the Financial Post. “While Apple will receive 0.15 per cent or 15 basis points on credit transactions — comparable to the widely reported figure for Apple Pay in the US, which works out to 15 cents for every $100 purchased — a lower fee of four basis points will be applied to credit transactions after an annual payment of 50 cents per card,” the publication reports. Apple Pay launched in Canada in November last year.

Australia’s ANZ bank has reported a surge in applications for credit cards and deposit accounts since it added support for Apple Pay in April 2016, forcing “other major banks to re-enter negotiations with the technology giant,” says The Sydney Morning Herald. “The main sticking point continues to be how to divide up the billions of dollars of fee income banks earn from processing payments.” Online credit card applications have risen 20% since the Apple Pay deal was announced.

Canadian consumers can now add their MasterCard and Visa credit cards as well as their Interac debit cards to Apple Pay after the mobile payments service launched in the country with support from American Express alone in November 2015. Five banks have also announced their support for Apple Pay, including two of the country’s largest — Royal Bank of Canada and BMO Financial Group. More

Customers at approximately 250 branches of US department store chain Kohl’s can now earn Yes2You Rewards loyalty points when they use Apple Pay to pay for their purchases at the checkout with a Kohl’s Charge card. More

Consumers across the UK can now make host card emulation (HCE) based mobile payments using German payments technology provider Wirecard’s Boon service. The service has also been integrated into Apple Pay for the first time, enabling those… More